The computer is founded on a principle of generalized equivalence. Indeed, in order for the world to be considered "computerly," or digital, it must be reduced to numbers, to calculable data and codes. Data can be translated from one form to the next due to this axiomatic reduction to a common language. This infinite translation reiterates the westen fantasy of a "mathesis universalis," or universal mathematical language epitomized by the digital code of the computer, a language that does not need to introduce itself to an external world because it all occurs on a screen.
MY LAST TAPE proposes an ironic way to explore the domain of this translation. I scan a text, The Last Tape of Samuel Beckett. I change the .TXT extension of the file for the .PRG extension, used for files under COMMODORE 64. With a conversion program I translate this file in an audio file that ...
Full Description
The computer is founded on a principle of generalized equivalence. Indeed, in order for the world to be considered "computerly," or digital, it must be reduced to numbers, to calculable data and codes. Data can be translated from one form to the next due to this axiomatic reduction to a common language. This infinite translation reiterates the westen fantasy of a "mathesis universalis," or universal mathematical language epitomized by the digital code of the computer, a language that does not need to introduce itself to an external world because it all occurs on a screen.
MY LAST TAPE proposes an ironic way to explore the domain of this translation. I scan a text, The Last Tape of Samuel Beckett. I change the .TXT extension of the file for the .PRG extension, used for files under COMMODORE 64. With a conversion program I translate this file in an audio file that I reproduce on a magnetic tape that I play on an old computer COMMODORE 64.
Between the choice of the text, as arbitrary as the mathesis computer universalis, and the final product, a tape is achieved. What is it that the translation and the relation between the analogical and the numeric?
Krapp, in The Last Tape, says that the earth could be uninhabited. This possibility, as she hypothesizes, considers the past ("what was") as well as the future ("what will occur," like the unthinkable explosion of the sun of which Jean-Fran
Work metadata
- Year Created: 2003
- Submitted to ArtBase: Friday Feb 28th, 2003
- Original Url: http://incident.net/works/my_last_tape/
- Permalink: http://incident.net/works/my_last_tape/
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Work Credits:
- Gregory Chatonsky, creator
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